Posted on 12/22/2004 7:22:14 AM PST by missanne
I received this from someone I will not name, but this occurred the the Fayetteville, Arkansas school system. We won for now...........
Christ is allowed in school after all
I thought I would share my family's interesting events of this week, as every Christian that I have told it to was delighted to hear it.
Two of my children attend Holcomb Elementary in Fayetteville. A few days ago my 5th grade son had a "Winter Break" party, and children were allowed to hand out things to each other. He handed out little button pins that stated things like "Jesus is the Reason for the Season", "God's Property", "God Rocks", and other such statements. It was not noticed at the time by the teachers.
However, when my younger first grader took the pins to hand out at his party the next day, when his teachers saw them (gasp!), they quickly grabbed them up and would not allow him to share them. When he complained that his older brother had handed them out, they gasped again and quickly announced to the fifth grade class that anyone who received them and taken them home should bring them back to school and turn them in. They found several of the pins attached to other kids' backpacks, and confiscated them immediately, stating that school policy prohibited handing them out.
My wife, a devout Christian, was very upset by this, and she spent about 4 hours on the phone complaining to various teachers and school officials. You see, my son had just brought home a seven page booklet on Hanukkah worked on in class, and had sat through a study of Quanza. He also got to hear about Hispanic religious activities, but Christianity was specifically singled out and excluded. It also aggravated us to see that they specifically left Christmas, a US Federal Holiday, off of the December School Calendar, but they never fail to show other Federal Holidays such as Thanksgiving on the school calendars. Christmas Vacation has become "Winter Break", and a Christmas party has become a "Winter Break Party", and other such nonsense, attempting to remove any reference to Christmas from the school.
The responses from the school maintained that the pins with religious messages were prohibited by school policy. When my wife pressed them to provide the policy, they hem-hawed, and then stated that "it was an interpretation of the policy", and she got the run-around. So, she scheduled an appointment at the Central Office of the Fayetteville School System, and insisted, "Show me the policy you are interpreting". They didn't and couldn't.
Finally, under duress (and if you have ever met my wife you know it was considerable), the central office contacted their lawyer for an response to my wife. The answer from the lawyer? My son handing out Christmas pins with religious messages in no way violates any school policy. The school officials had dreamed up and were implementing a policy that did not exist. There is no policy that states Christmas should be excluded from mention or be "taboo" as it is treated. Nothing prevents a child from handing out religious items as long as it does not interrupt the learning experience or offend anyone. My first grade son received permission, and he handed out the pins today. The teachers are returning the other pins to the fifth grade children that they had confiscated.
God Wins! Christmas and Christianity continue to be under assault in our school system, but we won this round.
You are sooooo right on!
Thank God!
Please do whatever it takes to get your children out of public schools! The older they get, the more important it becomes...
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